ESRB and Oblivion

Just google "ESRB Oblivion" and you'll see what I'm about to rant about. To recap: Someone made a skin for "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion", which allows you to play as a topless woman. As a result, the ESRB (Game Ratings Board) re-rated the game, changing it from "Teen" to "Mature". The ESRB has since claimed that the re-rate was not only for the nudity, but also because the ESRB "just now noticed" some gore they hadn't seen before. Whatever the explanation, the little ratings square on the Oblivion box now says "nudity" in the description.

We could spend days arguing whether or not seeing breasts could damage a child's mind. I'm generally pro-nudity, as long as it's not sexual nudity. Heck, as I write this, I've got Halsman/Dali's "In Voluptate Mors" as my desktop. Besides, Oblivion was already rated "Teen", and I seriously doubt there are many teens who've never seen a breast.

But that's not the point. The Ratings Boards have started basing their ratings not just on the content included with the game, but also on fan-created content that can be downloaded. This is flat-out ridiculous. First off, for any game that uses skins, players can make nude patches. I doubt there's a single first-person-shooter out there that doesn't have nude skins available for it. But it doesn't stop there. There are many games where skins/mods weren't even intended, but players found ways to replace character models with nudity.

Right now I'm glancing at my own shelves, and in just a few seconds I've already counted 5 "Teen" rated games that have nude patches available online. If the ESRB is going to rate games based on user-made content, then they'll have to start giving EVERY game an "M" rating. And if every game has the same rating, then of course the ratings system is useless.

The ESRB will notice this eventually. If they use Oblivion as an example, then they'll start looking at the downloads available for all the games they rate. Sooner or later they'll notice that every game is getting a "Mature" rating. (And if not, then they're just not Googling hard enough.) My fear is that they'll try to solve the wrong problem... instead of revising the ratings system, they'll try to outlaw the mods.